Norwegian Folk Dance Music

The Kaufmann Duo (Mattias and Charles Kaufmann) will play Norwegian folk dances collected by Norwegian folklorist Klara Semb (1884–1970) and their own arrangements of Scandinavian folk music.

April 26th | 1pm | $20; $10 for members

Mattias Kaufmann is an accordionist based in Boston, MA, known for their innovative compositional work with the critically acclaimed interdisciplinary Yiddish theater group Magid Ensemble. They have studied with masters of the accordion in the USA and abroad, such as American accordionist Guy Klucevsek and Serbian accordionist Nenad Ivanović, and are a member of the New England Greek Orchestra, led by world-famous Greek musicians Vasilis Kostas and George Lernis. Mattias holds a degree in Contemporary Musical Arts from New England Conservatory and enjoys examining the threads that connect different styles of folk music from around the world.

Charles Kaufmann is an award-winning writer, historian, filmmaker, composer, bassoonist, organist, and the founding director of The Longfellow Chorus, a professional non-profit performing arts organization in Portland, Maine. During the 1980s, he was a bassoonist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Musikkselskapet Harmonien) in Bergen, Norway, where he recorded solo bassoon works for NRK Radio, including premiere recordings of those by Norwegian composer Øistein Sommerfeldt. In 2012, he arranged a rare visit to the US by Norwegian violinist Arve Tellefsen for performances with the Orchestra of The Longfellow Chorus of concert violin music by Ole Bull (1810–1880). Also in 2012, he edited, translated subtitles, and screened in Portland’s Nickelodeon Theatre the remarkable documentary for children “Ole Bull’s Fairy Tale” (NRK TV, 1982), starring Arve Tellefsen, currently available on YouTube as “Arve Tellefsen in Ole Bull’s Fairy Tale.”

Host or Publisher Scandinavian Living Center